USPTO Patents Application 10784205

Customer No. 22,852
Attorney Docket No. 04175.0056-00
Application No, 10/784,205

AMENDMENTS TO THE CLAIMS:

This listing of claims will replace all prior versions and listings of claims in the
application:

1. (Currently Amended) An image forming system comprising:
communication unit for interconnection; and

a plurality of electrophotographic image forming apparatuses each visualizing a
latent image on a latent image carrier generated based on input image data by a
developer and transferring the visualized image to a recording material, which are
connected via said communication unit;

the image forming system having memory to store usage histories of the latent
image carriers of the image forming apparatuses and having a function of controlling
s ele ct i ng image forming apparatuses outputting the image based on the carrier usage
history data stored in the memorv to achieve approximately the same deteriorated
conditions .

2. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 1 , wherein the usage
history of said latent image carrier is based on the number of transferred pages
obtained with reference to an operating time or recording materials.

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Customer No. 22,852
Attorney Docket No. 04175.0056-00
Application No. 10/784,205

3. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the usage
history of said latent image carrier is modified according to a characteristic of
deterioration through use of each latent image carrier.

4. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the image
forming apparatuses outputting the image are selected so that the usage histories of the
latent image carriers of the image forming apparatuses are approximately the same.

5. (Currently Amended) An image forming system comprising:
communication unit for interconnection; and

a plurality of electrophotographic image forming apparatuses each visualizing a
latent image on a latent image carrier generated based on input image data'by a
developer and transferring the visualized image to a recording material, which are
connected via said communication unit;

the image forming system having memory to store developer usage histories
data corresponding to a deterioration of a characteristic of the developer through use of
the developer in the image forming apparatuses and having a function of controlling
se l e cting image forming apparatuses outputting the image based on the developer
usage history data stored in the memor v to achieve approximatelv the same
deteriorated conditions .

6. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 5, wherein the usage
history of the developer is based on the number of transferred pages obtained with

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Customer No. 22,852
Attorney Docket No. 04175.0056-00
Application No. 10/784,205

reference to an operating time of a developing device, which contains the developer and
supplies it to the latent image carrier, or recording materials.

7. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 5, wherein the usage
history of the developer is modified according to a characteristic of deterioration through
use of the developer.

8. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 5, wherein the image
forming apparatuses outputting the image are selected so that the usage histories of the
developer are approximately the same in the image forming apparatuses.

9. (Currently Amended) An image forming system comprising:
communication unit for interconnection; and

a plurality of electrophotographic image forming apparatuses each visualizing a
latent image on a latent image carrier generated based on input image data by a
developer and transferring the visualized image to a recording material, which are
connected via said communication unit;

the image forming system having memory to store usage histories after
maintenance of the image forming apparatuses and having a function of controlling
s e l e ct i ng image forming apparatuses outputting the image based on the usage history
data to achieve approximatelv the same deteriorated conditions .

Customer No. 22,852
Attorney Docket No. 04175.0056-00
Application No. 10/784,205

10. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 8, wherein the usage
history after maintenance is based on the number of transferred pages obtained with
reference to an operating time for image formation of the image forming apparatus or
recording materials.

11. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 9, wherein the usage
history after maintenance is modified according to a characteristic of deterioration
through use of each image forming apparatus.

12. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 9, wherein the image
forming apparatuses outputting the image are selected so that the usage histories after
maintenance are approximately the same in the image forming apparatuses.

13. (Currently Amended) An image forming system comprising:
a communication unit for interconnection; and

a plurality of electrophotographic image forming apparatuses each visualizing a
latent image on a latent image carrier generated based on input image data by a
developer and transferring the visualized image to a recording material, which are
connected via said communication unit;

the image forming system having memory to store information related to an
average black ratio of developer after replacement and having a function of controlling
s ele ct i ng image forming apparatuses outputting the image based on the average black

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Customer No. 22,852
Attorney Docket No. 04175.0056-00
Application No. 10/784,205

ratio obtained from the information to achieve approximately the same deteriorated

conditions .

14. (Previously Presented) The image forming system according to claim 13,
wherein the memory stores usage histories of the developer, calculates the
photographic densities during image formation successively, and calculates the average
photographic densities from the usage histories and the successively calculated
photographic densities.

15. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 13, wherein the
image forming apparatuses outputting the image are selected so that the average
photographic densities are approximately the same in the image forming apparatuses.

16. -17. (Canceled)

18. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the
developer contains color particles.

19. (Previously Presented) The image forming system according to claim 1,
wherein a part or all of the plurality of image forming apparatuses connected to each
other via said communication unit are of different models.

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Customer No. 22,852
Attorney Docket No. 04175.0056-00
Application No. 10/784,205

20. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 1, further comprising
a display unit for displaying a list of the image forming apparatuses selected for
outputting the image.

21. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 20, further
comprising an operating unit for giving an instruction to execute the output with
specifying a part or all of the image forming apparatuses displayed on said display unit.

22. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 1, further comprising
a host device control unit for selecting the image forming apparatuses outputting the
image based on one of the data.

23. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 22, wherein said host
device control unit is incorporated in at least one of the image forming apparatuses.

24. (Original) The image forming system according to claim 22, wherein said host
device control unit is connected to said image forming apparatuses independently of the
image forming apparatuses connected to each other.

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